Growing up Luthor
by Ms. Issues
Summary: AU. In a world where Lex chooses to have children, take a peek into Conner's life as he tries to navigate a world of older sisters and the strangeness that surrounds his father. And when Conner falls ill, how far will Lex go to heal him. Child fic. Cameos by Ras, Savage, and Superman.
1. The terrible no good sister

"With every choice we make, we literally create a world. History branches in two, creating one Earth where we made the choice, and a second where we didn't. That's the secret of the universe, you know. Billions of people, making billions of choices, creating infinite Earths. Some so similar to each other that you could spend a lifetime searching for any distinction. Others so radically different, they defy comprehension." - Owlman, _Justice League: __Crisis on Two Earths_  


**_In a world where Lex chooses to have children, how different would that world be? _**This is the first part in a series. This story establishes the Luthor household and the second one, called Filial Duty takes place immediately after YJ's season one. This story is a bit on the fluff side (sort of calm before the storm/remember when things were normal), because it takes place one year after Superman began his career and so Lex has done less diabolical deeds (he still is crazy dangerous, powerful via his wealth, and well connected)

A/N: Lena Luthor is from the comics. Conner was created using clone technology. **Lex does not know** (more about that later). Conner has no powers, yet. Conner was born in 1994.

**Disclaimer for all chapters: I do not own YJ or JL characters, DC Comics does . . . duh**

* * *

July 13th 1999

_The clever king stood on the tallest mountain in the valley looking down at his great kingdom. On his head he wore a gold crown forged from the hands of Hephaestus encrusted with jewels from faraway lands. In his left hand, he held a scepter given to him by the good witch of the north. The king's people praised the king from their tiny houses, because he was totally awesome and the coolest person ever to step on earth._

"Conner!"

Lena's voice startled Conner and the five year old's left foot slipped from the top of the black leather couch he was standing on. He fell backwards on to the couch's soft cushions. The _Burger King_ crown Conner had bejeweled with one of his sister's craft kits tumbled to the hardwood floor.

"That's why you're not supposed to stand on the couch," said Lena plopping down beside him. She twirled a lock of her red hair around her finger. "Dad says."

Conner glared at his sister's softball uniform. Today had been Lena's first day of softball camp and the nine year old had clearly enjoyed it by the many stains on her uniform and the broad smile on her lips. Conner hated the smile. Lena was not allowed to have that much fun without him. Plus, it was not fair that Conner could not go to camp with his sister. His dad had said that Lena had to go by herself, that it was a girl's camp, and that Conner could not go. Conner, however, was sure he would be good at softball too. At LexCorp daycare, he always hit the wiffle ball, unlike some of the other kids who only ever got air. He bet he could even be better then Lena, if he could _just_ play with them.

Conner brandished the feather duster he was holding at her. "Go away."

"I want to play with your _Legos_."

"You can't. You went away. So you can't play with me."

Lena frowned, confused. After a moment, her eyes widened in realization. "Did you miss me?"

"No," said Conner folding his small arms across his chest.

Lena sighed. Her brother could be so stubborn sometimes and a bit of a grumpy goose if things did not go his way. "I have friends Conner. I can't play with you all the time," said Lena reasonably. "We can play now, though."

Conner scowled. "You left. You didn't wanna play with me. So, I don't wanna to play with you." Conner slid off the couch and retrieved his crown, placing it on his head. He marched over to the _Lego_ town he had created and sat down. He put the feather duster down beside him. He removed a cowboy from the backyard of a ranch and stood him on his lap.

Lena got off the couch and walked towards Conner.

"Hello Trevor," said Conner talking to the cowboy. He hopped the _Lego _man around on his lap. "Hello, King. I'm so glad you're here. I don't wanna play with Lena either."

Lena stopped. She put her hands on her hips. "If you're going to be dumb, Conner, I'm just going to go up to my room and have fun without you."

Conner turned his head and stuck out his tongue. "You're dumb."

"Well, _your_ face is dumb."

Conner mouth opened in shock. His face was so not dumb! He grabbed the feather duster and threw it at his sister's head.

Lena gasped, ducking just in time. The duster smashed into a book case and fell on the floor. Lena stomped towards Conner. Conner's eyes grew huge.

Lena jumped on the _Lego_ town. Then, she kicked her foot out and slid it around, knocking everything down, just for good measure.

"No!" Conner screeched, grasping the cowboy in his hand. He jumped up. Before he could go after his sister, Lena ran up the stairs towards her room, laughing madly.

Watching her, Conner's face crumbled into tears. He fell back on the floor in a sad slump with Trevor falling out of his hand. The _Lego _man laid face down on the floor. Conner took note. He too was clearly distraught at the terrible turn of events.

_The evil monster came out of nowhere catching the townspeople by surprise. The clever king looked at his now destroyed kingdom with great sadness. The only ray of hope: one survivor. The clever king and the lone cowboy would go forth into the wilderness and consult with the All Mighty Emperor._

_They would avenge their people._

Conner grabbed Trevor and ran towards the study. His face puffy and red, he hollered at the top of his lungs, "_Dad_, Lena's being mean to me!"

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If you made it this far . . . I hoped you enjoyed it!

Comments? Review below.


	2. Superman

Thanks for the reviews. :) Was not sure if people would like the story.

Ch. 2: Superman

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Lena's room was always darker than Conner's room at night. Conner's room had night lights, fiber optic stars splashed across the ceiling, while Lena's room had special black out curtains which blocked any light that might seep through her windows from the full moon or city lights. Still, Conner, clad in cowboy pajamas, crept expertly to his sister's bed.

"_Lena_," Conner whispered in his sister's ear. "Lena wake up. I got something cool to tell you._" _When Lena did not wake up, Conner poked her on the side. "_LENA!"_

Lena's hands flung out as she bolted up right and out of a dreamy haze.

Conner fell backwards on the floor. He rubbed his bum. _"_Ow."

"Lights on," said Lena and the room became bathed in light from the ornate sconces around the room. Lena sat in her very periwinkle colored room, in her periwinkle colored night gown, under her periwinkle colored comforter, and glared down at her brother. "What are you doing, Weirdo?"

Conner sat up, his face bright. He opened his mouth wide.

"You know what? I don't want to even know." Lena cast an angry finger at Conner. "And don't even think you can sleep here tonight. I can't play my _Gameboy_ for a whole week because of you."

"I don't want to sleep in your dumb room any way," said Conner, although that was completely untrue. Most nights he spent in Lena's room and sometimes his dad's. A scowl began to form on Conner's face, but then melted away into excitement. "I got somethin' to tell you. Guess what it is!"

"I don't care."

"Guess!" Conner stood up, practically vibrating with excitement. "It's so cool."

"Still don't care."

"But it's _really_ cool," Conner said hopping up and down.

Lena looked at the digital clock on her nightstand. It was a quarter to eleven. She turned back to her brother. "I don't ca—"

Conner threw his hands up. "I saw Superman outside in the garden!" And with that said, Conner ran out the door and out of view.

Lena watched her brother leave unfazed and then sunk back down into her pillows. Conner had a tendency towards tall tales and over exaggeration. For example, Conner sometimes told stories about how he could see and hear things from far away. Lex said it was because Conner had an active imagination. Lena thought it was because Conner just liked getting attention. Just as Lena was about to turned the lights off, Conner reappeared.

"Lena, come on!"

"Conner, I don't want to play with you go away. Superman's not outside."

"Yes he is!"

"Why would Superman be outside?_ Hmmm?_"

"I don't know. Maybe he's askin' Dad for money. Everybody is always askin' Dad for monies."

"He's an alien, why would he need money?"

Conner shrugged. He thought for a moment. "To buy more red underwear."

Lena laughed and sat up.

"What?" asked Conner confused.

"Oh." Lena swallowed a laugh. "You were serious?"

"He must go through a lot of red underwear."

"I think they are shorts. Very, very, short, shorts."

"Na-un. Boys don't wear shorts like that unless they do ballet," said Conner confidently. "It's underwear."

"Whatever," said Lena with a roll of her eyes. "The point is, Superman is not outside our home at eleven o'clock at night asking Dad for money so he could buy underwear. Just go to bed, Conner."

"I don't know why he's outside!" Conner stomped his foot. He did not know why his sister was being so difficult. "Maybe he's askin' dad to build a spaceship so he can go home. But it doesn't matter why 'cause everybody is outside!"

Lena's eyes widened. "What?"

Conner smiled, happy that his sister was finally paying attention."Dad's outside and Eve's outside and Hope's outside and Otis' outside and Sergei's outside and—"

Lena bolted out of her bed interrupting what would surely be a long list of names. Lex made sure the penthouse had the best security system money could buy. There was also a small army of guards who dwelled in the floor under the penthouse proper. Though Conner was smart for his age, being at a higher math and reading level than his peers, Lena knew he did not understand fully the element of danger their life held. Their dad was incredibly wealthy with a net worth of ten billion dollars which made the family prime targets for kidnapping. Plus, LexCorp held multiple Defense contracts and was constantly researching and developing the most cutting edge technology and products spanning the science and medical fields, which Lena knew made them targets for anyone who might want to steal such research. That was not to mention that Lena sometimes thought her Dad was involved in other maybe not so legitimate businesses.

If all the guards were outside, Lena knew that was a bad sign.

Lena grabbed Conner's hand on the way out of her room.

"We're going the wrong way," said Conner as he reluctantly followed his sister. Lena, however, continued to walk. It was not until she had walked down the hallway, down a flight of stairs, and into the study that she let go of Conner's hand.

The study was nothing like Lex's LexCorp office which to Conner felt cold. It was too clean with too much black and white and when Conner looked out from the wall of windows to the vast Metropolis cityscape, he felt so far away and separate from all the people below. But the study? It was cluttered with an organized chaos Conner loved. Bookcases lined the wall with books of every size and color; some were so old that Conner was not allowed to touch. The ceiling was checkered with windows so that on sunny days, the room would glow with warmth, and at nighttime, on cloudless nights, the moonlight would cascade down making the whole room look ethereal like some magical place in one of Conner's books. Around the room, there were gifts from business partners: a tiger skin with a head whose eyes were emeralds, a katana with phoenix etched on it's scabbard, an elephant tusk that was bigger than even Conner himself, and other knickknacks from all around the world.

Conner watched Lena walk over to the mahogany desk and hit a key on the keyboard. A large painting on the opposite wall slipped up to reveal a row of security cameras. "I don't want to watch in here. I want to see what's happenin' for reals."

Lena shook her head. "We'll watch from here and if something goes wrong, we'll go into the safe room."

"Why?" asked Conner, cocking his head. He remembered his dad saying to go into the safe room if there was danger or if the special red emergency lights came on. Well, the emergency lights were not on and Conner could not see any fighting on the screen. Superman seemed to just be talking to his dad.

Probably about the red underwear.

"Superman's outside," said Lena patiently. "And there is some sort of situation going on outside."

Conner frowned. Having spent his life surrounded by his dad's network of security, he understand the special speak they used. The entire household adopted the language. Incident meant a security snafu or something where a public relations representative would be needed. A situation was bad. It meant security had or would exchange fire. A _situation, _said in a special tone or a pause before hand, meant police were involved or should be involved, but probably would not be. His dad did not seem to like police very much.

"But Superman's a good guy. He saves people."

"He's an alien, Conner. We can't trust him. Nobody should," said Lena, sitting down on the light carpet. "No one knows where he came from. Not even the government. He could just be pretending to be nice so that humans like him. Then, when we least suspect it—BAM!" Lena slapped her hands together. "He attacks us!"

"Oh," said Conner eying the security screen with new unease. It was not the first time he had heard a statement like that, though. Superman had been in Metropolis for about a year and it seemed like none of the adults knew quite what to think about the man in the red underwear. Some people praised him for his good deeds and there was now a plethora of Superman memorabilia in the city. There were also a lot of people who thought Superman was a threat. Conner heard people arguing in the streets and on the radio about it. And there was no denying that a lot of weird things had been happening since the alien's arrival—monsters attacking Metropolis and elsewhere, an increase in violence in Metropolis, and the appearance of other costume heroes in other cities.

Conner looked down at his sister."Or maybe he's just like E.T and he just wants to go home."

Lena snorted. "Yeah, right. _Home?_ That's when he comes back here with a thousand war ships to blow us up."

Conner bit his lip.

"But it's okay," said Lena quickly as she saw Conner's face. "Because all the world's military will unite and we'll attack them first."

Conner sighed in relief. "And Dad will help cause he can make special weapons, right?"

Lena nodded and then turned back to the security screens. "Now we just got to make sure Superman doesn't eat Dad."

Conner's eyes grew wide. "What?" he said in a small voice.

"That's what some aliens do," said Lena her eyes never leaving the security screen. "But some other aliens have little mouths that shoot out of their regular mouths and some go inside your body and lay eggs, but you don't know it, and then they pop out of your chest."

"What!"

* * *

{Four Hours Later}

A strange feeling of something not being right brought Lex out of his sleep. He sat up. "Light's on."

The room illuminated to reveal Conner sitting with his legs crossed at the end of the massive bed. He wore a helmet on his head and a tennis racket in his hand. Next to him was a blue cooler Lex recognized as the one they had used when he had taken Lena and Conner to the shore the previous Saturday.

Conner waved. "Hi, Dad."

Lex was quite for a moment as he tried to figure out if he was still dreaming. He blinked a couple of times. Then cracked a smile, because his son looked ridiculous. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna hit the alien and put it in here." Conner pointed at the cooler.

"What?"

"The alien. I'm gonna put it in here."

Lex quirked an eyebrow. "Conner, what are you talking about?"

Conner sighed a bit annoyed having to explain himself a third time. His dad was usually really smart. "Dad, do you need coffee? Cause you're not being smart and you're only not smart when you don't have your coffee."

"I don't need coffee," said Lex his voice gruff, but then he wondered if maybe he should get coffee because clearly the world had turned upside down while he had been asleep. His eyes caught sight of a white metal box peeking behind Conner. "Is that a first aid kit?'

Conner nodded. "When the alien pops out of your chest, I'm gonna hit it and then I'm gonna catch it and then I'm gonna put a band aid on you." Conner looked at Lex his eyes serious and determined. "Don't worry, Dad. I got your back."

Lex made a small noise in the back of his throat that sounded suspiciously like a laugh and Conner frowned. "This is serious."

Lex ran a hand across his for mouth to hide the smile. "Conner, there is no alien inside me. Why in the world would you think that?"

"Superman was here and that's what some aliens do," said Conner, remembering exactly everything Lena had told him. "Aliens have little mouths that shoot out of their regular mouths and some go inside your body and lay eggs, but you don't know it, and then they pop out of your chest."

Lex made a noncommittal sound as he recalled Conner's word's sounded awfully like the _Aliens_ franchise and he could not figure out where his son would have seen it.

"Dad, how do you not know this? You work with NASA and like astronauts and stuff," said Conner completely bewildered. "Lena knows!"

Lex looked at the ceiling, exasperated. He supposed this whole scenario was his fault. When Superman had left (after first accusing Lex of causing a fire in the Queensland Park borough of Metropolis in order to buy the properties which Lex smoothly denied, but, of course, had), Lex told Lena and Conner that the appearance of Superman was something they need not worry about. It was late and he did not want to deal with the many questions. Then, after praising Lena for her quick thinking in her decision to go to the study (as he had told them many times before that the study should be the first place they should go to in the event of a perceived danger), had sent the two off to bed.

In hindsight, Lex realized answering the questions then would have avoided being woken up at three in the morning.

Lex looked back at Conner. "Lena saw a movie and confused fiction with real life."

"I don't know, Dad . . . if an alien took over your body, that's what they would make you say to trick me into thinkin' you're okay. And then, BAM!" Conner hit the bed with the racket. "You'd attack."

"Sometimes you are too smart for your own good. "

Conner beamed.

"In any case, Superman is not that type of Alien, _if_ there was a type of alien like that." Lex motioned to Conner's gear. "You can sleep in here tonight, but you have to put all that on the floor."

Conner complied, crawled under the covers, and scooted closer to his dad.

Lex turned off the lights.

"What type of alien is Superman then?"

"The nosey-needs-to-mind-his-own-business kind."

"Soooo, what planet is that? Jupiter?"

Lex chuckled.

"Is it Jupiter, Dad?"

"No one knows where he comes from."

"Oh. Are there a lot of aliens out there? Are they gonna keep coming here? Do they have pets? Where did E.T go?"

Lex sighed. "I am going to the Johnson's Space Center on Monday. How about you come with me? The you can ask the astronauts and the scientists all the questions about aliens that you want."

"Okay," said Conner happily. "Do they got moon rocks?"

"Yes, they _have _moon rocks."

Conner smiled. He liked rocks.

It was quite for a moment after that. Lex thought that perhaps he had become lucky and Conner had miraculously fallen asleep, because Conner was notoriously hard to put to bed, but a second later Conner shifted around. He rested his head on Lex's chest, listening for any weird noises.

"_Conner_, an alien is not going to pop out of my chest."

"I'm just checking," said Conner and then he shifted again until his head hit the pillow.

"Are you satisfied?"

"Mmm Hmm," mumbled Conner. He yawned and then cuddled closer to his dad."Your heart . . . it sounds like mine."

Lex wrapped and arm around him.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Comments? Review.

Next Chapter-Conner goes to the space center and counters something strange!


	3. Kryptonite

Thanks for the reviews! To the person who pointed the mistake in the Owlman reference-thank you. Ched & Shatterfire-Glad you guys like Lena!She becomes strategically important in the sequel.

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July 19, 1999

8:27 AM

It was a four hour flight from Metropolis to Houston and Conner was asleep for most of it. The two Luthor males had left early in the morning so that Lex could arrive before nine; he had several meetings regarding the work LexCorp was participating with NASA on, including the International Space Station. Conner was upset at first when he realized his dad was going to be in meetings all day, but instantly cheered up when Lex told him he would get a tour of some of the facilities with a real astronaut. It would be a special tour, just him and the astronaut, because the official tours did not start for another few hours.

Conner was used to getting special treatment.

Lex wore his usual black suit and tie combo. Today's tie color: forest green, which brought out his eyes perfectly. Conner marched beside him, wearing blue jeans and a Milky Way galaxy 'you are here' t-shirt.

"Henshaw will be giving you the tour," said Lex to Conner as they approached the Visitor Center of the Johnson Space Center with Eve Teschmacher, Lex's body guard for the day, trailing behind them. A male in his late thirties with a buzz cut and a leather jacket stood outside the Center's multiple double doors.

Conner frowned. He had met Hank Henshaw before. Henshaw was a LexCorp engineer. "But you said I'd get to go with an astronaut."

Henshaw quirked an eyebrow. "Conner, I _am_ an astronaut. I was up in the Space Station."

"But I know you. It doesn't count," said Conner dismissing Henshaw with one look. He then peered up at Lex. "Dad can I get another one?"

"Sure," said Henshaw giving Lex a wry smile. "Us astronauts, we grow on trees."

"Henshaw took time out of his day so that he could give you this tour," started Lex in a tone which promised a long lecture was going to happen later in the day when they were alone.

Conner grumbled. His dad was very uptight about not wasting time. Whatever Lex was about to say next was lost to Conner as Conner's attention was drawn to a short black hair woman in a blue pencil skirt and a white blouse walking from an adjacent building towards the parking lot.

Conner waved an arm in the air. "Hey, Miss Lady!"

The women paused, looked around the parking lot, and then back at Conner.

"Are you an astronaut?"

"No," she called back and Conner's shoulders slumped. Where was he going to find another astronaut?

"That's Michelle Wu," said Henshaw to Lex. "She's a cosmo-chemist from ARC."

Lex was drawn into a conversation with Henshaw. As they talked, Conner stood idly by, getting more restless by the second. His dad was not paying attention to him. Conner hated when his dad did not pay attention to him. So Conner tried to follow the conversation, like he tried to follow all of Lex's discussions with people in the science field, but soon became lost.

Conner sometimes wished he was smarter. Then, he would be able to have a long conversation with his dad about science without his dad having to dumb things down. For now, Conner consoled himself with the fact that at least he knew that ARC stood for Ames Research Center, another NASA facility.

"And," said Henshaw, as Conner's eyes wandered to Eve , whom he had forgot was there (it always amazed Conner how the guards seemed to disappear in plain sight), "Wu has some pretty interesting stuff about geochemical—"

"Geo?" piped up Conner. "That's with rocks, right?"

"Yes," answered Henshaw. "ARC is currently re-cataloguing the specimens of solar system materials at all the facilities and storage units to create a more cohesive reference system for future research."

Conner had stopped listening after 'yes'. "I love rocks!" He jumped once in excitement and then turned back around. Michelle Wu was now turned towards the open trunk of her car and appeared to be rummaging for something. "Dad, I want to go with her."

"Don't mind me," said Henshaw. "I only just got back from space two monthes ago. As in, I was _actually_ in space. You _did_ want to tour with an astronaut?"

"But I love rocks," said Conner like it explained everything. Besides, Conner saw engineers all the time at LexCorp. Saying you had a degree in engineering at LexCorp was like saying you ate breakfast in the morning—it was sort of expected. Engineers were _boring._ Even if they wore cool flight jackets and had just come back from space.

"You have your hands full with this one," said Henshaw. "Don't you?"

"Only on days that end in Y," said Lex. The two men began talking about Wu's research and whether or not Conner could see it, while Conner's mind trailed to what his dad had said. Conner counted on his hands. There was Monday. Monday had a Y. There was Tuesday. Tuesday also had a Y. There was Wednesday. Wednesday also had a Y.

_Thursday . . . Friday . . . Saturday . . . Sunday._

Conner gasped. "Dad!"

Lex and Henshaw looked down.

"All the days of the week end in Y!"

Lex smirked. "Figured that out did you?"

Conner scrunched his face. Conner stuck out his tongue. That was slander! He knew what slander was, his dad's PR people always made sure there was never any slander against his dad. Conner also knew he was good.

Well, most days.

Well, maybe not most days, but Conner knew he was _always_ good near winter so that Santa would give him presents.

* * *

YJYJYJ

10:11 AM

"This is so cool," yelled Conner, as he stood in a retired space shuttle. Most people would not be allowed in, but Conner was not most people. Touring the facilities with Henshaw ended up being fun after all. Conner saw the Mission Control Center and some of the astronaut training facilities. Henshaw even answered his questions about aliens—turns out Superman was the only alien known on earth and the chances of Conner seeing a real alien popping out of someone's chest was fairly low. But Conner's favorite part by far was when Henshaw let him eat as much ice-cream from the cafeteria that he wanted, even though it was not anywhere near lunch.

Conner turned to look at Henshaw, who was watching with a bemused smile. "Can I press a button? Dad never let's me press buttons on _anything_." He pouted, thinking. Truthfully, it was not just buttons Conner could not touch. His dad was always saying things like: _Conner, don't touch this _or _Conner, don't touch that_ or _Conner, keep your hands to yourself. _

Conner thought this was entirely unfair. All he ever did was break a stupid vase in a stupid private collection of one of his dad's business associates. He had been four. The man kept raving that it was one of a kind, which was obviously a lie. Conner saw vases in the store all the time. Still, his dad seemed very upset about it too. Now, his dad never let him hear the end of it.

Conner thought he should be allowed to touch things now. He was a wordly five.

"Knock yourself out," said Henshaw.

"Really?"Conner gasped, his eyes growing wide. He smiled and then turned around and slammed his hand on a nice shiny red button on a consul filled with buttons, dials, and switches. He looked up, his eyes darted around the ship waiting for something. After a minute passed, he looked back at Henshaw. "Nothin happened."

"Of course, nothing happened," said Henshaw with a shrug. "It's off."

"Well what's the point of pushin' a button if nothin' happens," said Conner outraged. "I want to go to space!"

"I think your dad would be a bit upset if we let you go to space."

"It's Okay," said Conner reasonably. "I'd send him a post card."

* * *

YJYJYJ

10:41 AM

"What's five plus three?" asked Michelle Wu as she jotted a notation down on her clip board about the small meteorite of asteroid origin that was in front of her.

"That's easy," said Conner looking up from the microscope Michelle had set up for him. Next to the microscope sat Trevor, the Lego cowboy. Conner had grown accustomed to taking him everywhere since they endured the horrible tragedy of last week's monster-sister attack. "Eight. Give me somethin' harder."

Michelle looked at Conner. She had not really wanted a five year old in her warehouse, but there had to be some future benefits for being nice to Lex Luthor's son. One could never know when a LexCorp grant might come in handy. So, Michelle had given Conner slides of dust particles from various rocks to look at and pass the time. Letting a five year old use expensive lab equipment seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, but Conner was proving to be very much his father's son. "Eleven plus seven?"

"Eighteen. I can do times tables to."

"Three times four?"

"Twelve," said Conner easily. He loved math. He could do math all day. Words? Not so much. His dad said that when he started school next year he would be with older kids. Conner hoped he could be with Lena. Then, they could be together all day.

"Eight times six?"

"Fourty eight."

"Doctor Wu," said a young male in a lab coat coming from the back and carrying a white storage box. "There's about four of these boxes. They don't appear to be any mention of them in the JSC's records for this warehouse. They're all from that freak 1978 March meteor shower. "

Doctor Wu glanced at the box. It was labeled 1978-KS. She sighed. It really was amazing how much in storage was not accounted for. Over the years, with specimens and boxes switching through various facilities, things got forgotten or lost. She motioned to a nearby table. "Over there."

Conner's hand absentmindedly went to his head as the intern placed the box on the table. Something did not feel right. But as quickly as the feeling came it disappeared. "When can I see bigger rocks?"

"After I'm done with this." Michelle turned back to her work."I heard you like rocks."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Conner nodding vigorously. "I collect them all the time! Like, I find some cool ones at the park and sometimes when we go to the beach and when me and Lena go with Dad to other countries and I pick them up and my Dad puts it on a shelf . . ." He paused as a wave of nausea hit him.

The intern placed a box labeled 1978-NY down, before scurrying to the back.

"I've seen moon rocks," said Conner sitting down in the chair behind him which he had, up to that point, been ignoring. He knew he should not have had all that ice-cream earlier! Maybe this feeling was what his dad meant when he said things like, _you are going to spoil your dinner_. Conner pondered going to the bathroom, but then decided not to. "Do you got ones from Mars?"

"We have pretty much everything here: moon rocks from various missions, rocks from Mars, then, of course, we have the meteorites. Did you know there are different types of meteorites?" asked Michelle, a hint of excitement tinging her voice as she realized how much fun it could be showing Conner her field of expertise. "There are Irons, Stones, and Stony-irons. Oh, and I think you'll love looking at the meteorite from the Sikhote-Alinregmaglyptst meteor shower in 1947. There are some beautiful specimens –"

The sound of a chair slamming the ground and a yelp stopped her. Michelle turned around. "Conner!"

Conner lay withering on the floor, his arms wrapped around him, moaning. His small face had turned ashen. Michelle had never seen someone so pale.

"What's wrong?" asked Michelle kneeling beside him, holding the back of his head so it would not hit the ground. "What hurts?"

"Everythin'!"

It was the worst pain Conner had ever felt. His whole body seemed to be on fire from within.

"_Jesus,"_ said the intern coming to a halt as he walked towards the table. In his hands was a box labeled, 1978-MO. "It could be his appendix."

Michelle noted Conner seemed to be clinging more to his abdomen then anywhere else. It could very well be the appendix. "Put that down and help me carry him," she said, grabbing a walkie-talkie from her belt. "We have a medical emergency in Warehouse 3-A."

The intern ran over, placing the box on the table.

Conner screamed in anguish. His eyes were shut tight, hot tears seeping from them. It was worst now. It was as if a hundred tiny daggers were slowly filleting his skin, his nerves, and every organ in his body. He did not hear Michelle talking rapidly over the phone with Lex and, on the walkie-talkie, with JSC's medic.

"I want . . ." said Conner his breath coming out in sharp, shallow rasps, "my Daddy!"

Conner gave one last sob, before he blacked out.

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Comments? Review.

And some how my fluff story has turned into a hurt/comfort.

Coming up next: Origins! Cause Lex doesn't know Conner is an alien yet and spends the rest of the story trying to stop him from finding out.


	4. Origins Part 1: Hospital

I apologize for the long delay. I know this story was supposed to be fluffy and humorous, but as you might have seen, I have changed the rating and genre. There is still going to be fluff later and humor, but for this chapter it's going to be more serious. Conner has not speaking parts in this chapter.

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July 19th

7:33 pm

Conner's face was pale and dull and tubes protruded from his arms into machines as he lay on a hospital bed in a private room of Metropolis's Children's Hospital.

Lena, who was still in her softball uniform from camp, sat in a chair beside Conner's bed. She had never seen her brother so still. Conner was always moving, always active, even in his sleep he would fidget or his eyes would flutter.

This felt wrong.

The sound of Lex yelling at doctor down the hall carried into the room. Lena looked miserably across the bed at a dark skinned woman in a yellow sundress—Hope. Lena had known Hope for most of her life. Hope had been one of Kitty's body guards before being injured in the home invasion at the Mansion that killed Kitty and eleven other guards a year ago. Hope was now Conner's and Lena's nanny.

"Why isn't he waking up?" Lena asked frustrated. No one seemed to be telling her anything. Although, to be fair and judging by her dad's arguments with the doctors, no one seemed to know what was wrong with Conner.

Back in Texas, Conner had been rushed to the closest emergency room. The doctors at Christus Saint John Hospital had found Conner was stable and not in any immediate danger even though he was in a coma. They could not figure out why he had fallen ill. Lex had not given them much time to figure it out. Conner was soon rushed back to Metropolis which had some of the best doctors in the country. It had been two hours since Lex and Conner's arrival and the MCH doctors did not seem to be coming up with a diagnosis either based on the scans that were performed. They were now waiting on the results of the blood work which Lex had demanded be rushed.

"I'm sure the doctors will figure out something soon," said Hope not taking her eyes off Connor.

Lena eyes darkened. Usually she gained comfort from Hope's voice—the slight African accent gave it a musical quality—but Lena could tell a platitude when she heard one.

Biting down anger, Lena slid of the chair and stomped into the hallway passed the two guards, Otis and Eve, standing on either side of the doorway. She glared in the direction of her father who was currently frightening all the nurses at the nurse station. "Dad, stop yelling at everyone. It's not making anything better!" She turned around and stomped back to her chair before Lex could even turn around.

Hope gave Lena a warning look. "Your father is only worried, Lena."

"Well it's unbecoming of a Luthor," said Lena sounding much older than her nine years. She dismissed the reprimand with a sweep of her hand. "Besides, we are in the public."

Hope did not respond.

Lena knew she was right. How many times had she heard a lecture from her dad about how to act in public? Too many times. Yelling, Lex said, could make you look like you were not in control of your own emotions, your rational, or your environment which made you look weak. Luthor's were _never_ weak. Moreover, they were high-profile family and reporters, Lex said, would not miss an opportunity to make a headline.

"Hope," said Lex walking in. "Take Lena home."

Lena's eyes widened."Why?"

"It's getting late."

"But I can't leave," said Lena looking at Lex earnestly. "Conner needs me here. He doesn't like sleeping alone."

"Lena," started Lex and then he hesitated and sighed. "He will not know that you are here and you cannot stay all night in the hospital."

Lena opened her mouth outraged, but Hope cut her off. "What did the Doctor say?"

"Nothing of use," said Lex in disgust. "They need to draw more blood. Some _incompetent_ lab tech cross contaminated the samples somehow and the machines keep reading an error."

"Why do _I _have to leave," demanded Lena drawing Lex's attention. "Is it a rule, like, are they _making_ us leave? Didn't you give them a whole bunch of money last year?" Lena stood up. "This wouldn't be happening if Doctor Gupta was here," Lena said thinking about her and Conner's pediatrician, who, the hospital said, was currently in Fiji on vacation. "You need to make her come back here so she can fix Conner."

It was a tall demand, but Lena was sure if there was anyone who could force someone out of a vacation it was her dad. Lena knew her dad could do anything. He was like a magician; he always got what he willed. Except, instead of magic, he had money and her dad said money was power.

"This is bigger than Doctor Gupta," said Lex. When Lena's face fell he quickly added, "A _diagnostician_ team from Boston is coming. They are sure to figure this all out."

"_Boston? _That's hours away. What happens if Conner gets worst?" Lena wrung her hands. "If you won't make Dr. Gupta come, why don't you just call Conner's other doctor then?"

"Conner does not have another doctor."

Lena gasped. She put her hands on her hips. "Is that why Conner's sick, Dad? You haven't been taking him to Doctor Desmond's."

Lex glanced at Hope who looked as perplexed as he felt. "What are you talking about? Conner does not have a doctor named Desmond."

Lena's eyes narrowed. The worry she had about Conner's well being swirled into anger. "Well, of course, you wouldn't know. It's not like you were ever home anyway before Mama Kat died," snapped Lena, her heart aching a bit as she thought of her step mother. She threw her hands in the air. "You're _always_ working. Where were you when Conner got sick? Oh, yeah, a _meeting._"

Lex got very still. His eyes flashed.

"She's scared and she's lashing out," said Hope trying to smother the flames of the fight before it worsened. Lex was sure to say something to make it worst.

The sound of Otis outside clearing his throat alerted everyone that someone was coming. Lex schooled his face, Lena sat back in her chair as prim and proper one could be in a dirty softball uniform.

A moment later a graying older male in a grey suit walked in. It was the hospital administrator, Mr. Fletcher. He shook Lex's hand. "Mr. Luthor, I am so sorry about the Lab error. We already terminated the lab tech that caused the error. I hope this does not reflect badly on your view of the MCH and effect future contributions."

Lena's mouth dropped. "Are you freaking kidding me? My brother won't wake up and you're talking about money?"

"Lena, calm yourself," said Lex, his voice clipped.

Lena bristled, but did not say anything else.

"I apologize," said Mr. Fletcher giving Lena an apologetic look. Lena almost rolled her eyes (the man was such a suck up), but stopped herself. Her father would not like it. Mr. Fletcher turned back to Lex. "I'm sure this is a very trying time for your family. I am going to personally see to it that everything runs smoother from now on. If you need anything, I will see that you get it."

"There is something you can clear up for me," said Lex. "I would like to take a look at Conner's medical records."

"Off course," said Fletcher eagerly and he was out the door. The man returned five minutes later. Lex quickly went through it.

"There is no doctor Desmond," said Lex looking up from the file and at Lena.

"Well, it is wrong then," said Lena stubbornly. "Mama Kat used to take him."

If Lena was this upset and this insistent, there had to be some truth in it. Lex looked at Hope again. If there was anyone who knew best about Kitty's past actions, it would be her body-guard. When Hope shrugged, Lex frowned in thought as he tried to figure out who else might know about Desmond. There were many specialized security squads, excluding the generic corporate security guards, that made up his security network. The top two, Alpha and Omicron, consisted of his most loyal, trusted, and talented security professionals. Alpha handled anything or anyone that he needed to have _taken care of_. Omicron consisted of the guards protecting the household. There was always a body-guard present with anyone in the family and HQ, which was located on the floor below the penthouse, always knew where everyone was. If Hope did not know, then someone one else had to.

"Who escorted her," said Hope to Lena "It wasn't me."

"If I may interrupt," said Mr. Fletcher. "There is always a possibility that this Doctor Desmond did not send Doctor Gupta his medical records if Katherine saw him as a walk-in and forgot to sign the medical release." He looked at Lena. "What is his first name? We keep an extensive list of doctors in our computer system. I can have a nurse pull him up and find out which office he is at."

"Mark," said Lena without hesitation.

"Mark Desmond? Well, I actually do know of him. Sweet heart, you must be mistaken. Mark Desmond is not a physician. He works at S.T.A.R Labs in the Genetics and Genomics sector doing cancer research. If Kitty did consult S.T.A.R Labs about a cancer scare that certainly would be in the medical record." Flectcher looked at his watch. "I have a meeting to attend, if you could excuse me?"

Lena watched him go and then turned back to Lex. "It _was_ Mark Desmond. I know because I got in trouble with Mama Kat, because I said he smelled like onions. Dad, just find him. _Please_."

Lex studied her. Then he took out his phone and called the Metropolis director of S.T.A.R Labs which he had in his contacts because some of LexCorp's medical branches occasionally collaborated with the company. After a moment talking, the director was able to find Desmond's contact. He was currently in Chicago. Lex called the number he was given. Only just after saying his name, Desmond spoke.

"How is your son doing?"

Lex paused, thrown off a bit. Then he remembered that there was always the chance that, in the last nine hours, the media had found out. "He's not doing too well," said Lex cordially. "The reason I am calling is because there seems to be a miscommunication that you may be able to clear up."

"Why is he not well?"

"We are trying to find out," said Lex not willing to divulge any information to a complete stranger. "As I was saying it appears my daughter seems to think—"

"Have you had blood work done?"

"Naturally," snapped Lex, he hated being interrupted. Plus, Desmond's voice was grating.

"What did the results say?"

"I do not see how this is any of your business. Unless, you were acting as Conner's doctor at one point. Where you?"

"Did the results come out as in error?"

Lex paused again. How did the man know that?

"I'll take that as a yes. Have they already drawn more blood? If not, don't let them. If they have . . . well, I've heard you know how to make problems disappear."

Lex's eyes narrowed as he instantly fixated on the latter part of the sentence. _I've heard? _This man definitely knew more than he should. Lex made a note to have Desmond killed once the confusion was cleared up. "I do not know what you are implying Doctor Desmond, however—"

"Katherine was a wonderful woman wasn't she, Mr. Luthor? She was not jaded or sarcastic. She was always smiling and easy going. It was like she looked out into the world with an untainted innocence and saw the best in everything and everyone. After all, she knew how dangerous you were and still married you."

"How do you know Kitty?"

"I'm an _old_ friend of hers."

"What the hell does that mean!"

Lena's eyebrows raised up high. "Dad?"

Lex did not even hear her. Kitty had cheated on him, Conner was not biologically his, he was Desmond's son, which would explain Kitty sneaking Conner off to see him without a guard, and now Conner suffering some genetic disorder from Desmond's gene pool.

"We grew up together on the same block at Fort Nellis. I was an Air Force brat too. Kitty knew I worked in genetics and sought me out because she kept having miscarriages. She wanted a karyotype test performed without anyone finding out. She felt if she had it done in Metropolis the media would have found out somehow."

That did not make Lex feel any less angry. This was a man knew too much about him, knew his wife (Lex had not known about the miscarriages) and knew something about his son while Lex knew nothing of Desmond.

"I am going to assume this is a secure line since you are who you are and I will get straight to the point. Your son was created using cloning technology and gene splicing. If he is ill"

Lex looked at the phone in disbelief. Lena and Hope looked curiously at him. "What kind of joke is this?"

"It's not a joke. I will tell you more when we meet . I will see you in Metropolis in an hour. I'll give you the address to meet me when I touch down. Bring the child."

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Thanks for reading. Comments? Review.

The second part of this chapter should be out shortly.


	5. Origin's Part 2: Desmond

Thanks to all who have reviewed! It really helps when I have a tough chapter like this with details and plot. It is so much harder to write than "That Text" which isn't really deep at all. Also, it gives me a clue on what people are liking or disliking. Thanks to all my old readers who have stuck with this story since the beginning (I know updates don't come very quickly)! And hello my new readers!

Depending on how you like science you'll either hate this chapter or love it.

Info about cloning came from: "The cloning Fact Sheet" by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a friend who is working in genomics. Info about Hybrid/Chimera DNA came from: "Chimera's, Mosaics, and Other Fun stuff" by Stafford, the Tech Museum of Innovation.

**Fic Cannon:** In case you forgot from the Superman chapter, Superman has only been around for a year. No one knows, including the government, a lot about Superman. They know that he has powers and is an alien. They do not know what planet he is from or when he got on earth. It is assumed he arrived on earth sometime near the day he first appeared in costume in Metropolis.

Conner has no speaking parts this chapter. This is purely all Lex.

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10:12 pm

Underground Lab, Metropolis

Lex had only been genuinely surprised twice in his life. The first time was after he killed his father, with the help of his sister, at fourteen for insurance money and discovered it really was _easy_ to get away with murder with the right planning. The second time was when Superman first appeared in Metropolis. As a general rule, Lex was constantly vigilant and planned for everything, but even he had not seen that coming—it took Murphy's law to a new level. Lex had thought there could not be anything more bizarre than a socialist alien showing up out of the blue determined to ruin his reputation and everything he had worked for.

Then he met Desmond.

Lex sat at a lab table adjacent to Conner's bed, while Desmond sat at a table in the back of the room analyzing Conner's blood work. On the table was a white long box containing Desmond's research. Lex kept reading the files on Conner, but his mind refused to process the information. All of it pointed to one truth. Conner was a clone.

Lex thought that he must have fallen into an episode of the _Twilight _Zone. It could not be true.

A fog of disbelief had descended upon him. He had not really believed Desmond on the phone, but a combination of stress and curiosity compelled him to at least meet the man. By Lena's information on Desmond, Lex thought he would be at an office. Not some shady underground lab. Turns out, Lena had no idea what Kitty really had been up to.

Lex wanted to say something to Desmond. He had stayed relatively mute since he had first started reading Conner's files. However, Lex could not bring himself to talk about Conner. If he talked about Conner, then he accepted Desmond's claims as truth and, despite the evidence, Lex was still trying to figure out if this was some elaborate prank.

So Lex kept his usual calm exterior. Inside, though, he was battling a storm of emotions. Anger, resentment, confusion . . . He knew that he would not have felt these emotions if a part of him did not believe Desmond. And if he did not believe Desmond, why would he still be in this lab? Why would he even let Desmond touch Conner?

But it could not be true. Conner could absolutely not be a clone.

Lex was almost tempted to ask the seven black uniformed guards from Alpha squad, who were surrounding the lab, what their thoughts were. However, their faces portrayed no emotions, just stone cold professionalism. He knew he paid them to behave in that manner, but surely they had to find this whole scenario unsettling and bizarre? He could not be the only one freaking out. Speaking up, though, would reveal his emotional turmoil. Leaders, Lex knew, needed to stay strong. Was it not Horace who said misfortunes and unexpected events lay open and disclose the skill of a general? He _had_ to keep a cool head. He could not appear weak. If he showed weakness, his people would think it would be acceptable to show weakness and, subsequently, his empire would be weak. Yet, for the first time in his life, Lex could not seem to think or act. What he was feeling—these messy emotions—was not him. Sitting passively on the sidelines was not how he dealt with situations affecting him. He was always in control of everyone and everything. He _needed_ to be in control. But Lex did not know how to move on from what he was feeling. Not if it meant accepting the truth that there were things he had not known about Kitty, that his wife of eight years had kept a momentous lie, even if it was a lie of omission, from him. He did not trust many people, but he had trusted Kitty.

He was stuck.

Lex tried to reach deep into his mind to scrounge up all the reason he could, hoping to desensitize himself. He recalled a stoic quote: "if you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

Lex was sure Marcus Aurelius was never told his son was a clone and his wife was a liar.

Marcus Aurelius could go screw himself.

Noticing a small recorder in the box, Lex picked it up and pressed play. The honeyed voice of Kitty broke the silence of the room.

"_Today is May 17__th__ 1993. _My_ name is Katherine Luthor born Katherine Kowalski and I am twenty-six."_

Lex paused the tape, dropping the small smile that had crept on his face. It was nice to hear Kitty's voice even if it was under auspicious circumstances.

"_This is my verbal consent for an experimental medical procedure using recombinant DNA technology or, more specifically, somatic cell nuclear transfer by Doctor Mark Desmond whom I trust completely_."

Lex glanced sideways at Desmond. The scientist was in his late twenties and had his long brown hair in a pony tail. He would have looked like a hippy in a lab coat if his face did not seem to be perpetually grumpy.

"_I am not being coerced and I understand the facts of this procedure and my part in it. I also understand that the exact future consequences of this procedure are unknown_."

Lex stopped the tape with a frown as a disturbing thought that should have been obvious crossed his mind. He had not really contemplated the high risk Kitty had taken to herself. He looked at Desmond. "You used my wife's womb for an illegal experimental science."

"Kitty volunteered," bristled Desmond looking up from his work and trying not to wither under the intense looks of the guards. "And aren't you the hypocrite? Lexcorp uses the homeless, naive college kids in need of money, and the military for its experimental medical research."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," said Lex smoothly.

"You can deny it all you want. I honestly do not care that you do this." Desmond gave a half shrug and returned to his work. "The point is: you understand that there are risks needed to advance science. Unlike the homeless, college students, and soldiers, Kitty knew what she was getting into and the risks."

Lex highly doubted that. Kitty had not been the brightest and her actions were ruled by emotions more than reason. He had found out Kitty's miscarriages were due to _a__nembryonic__ pregnancies _and a normal in vitro fertilization could have worked around that_. _Women with conception issues do not normally jump straight to an untested experimental science as a viable solution to their problem. She had obviously been coerced on an emotional level by her friend. No doubt, trying to help him.

Kitty had always had a helping people problem.

"Besides," continued Desmond unaware of the dark look Lex was giving him, "Kitty's part in it held no more risk than any women who undergoes in vitro fertilization. Except instead of creating an embryo in the lab by using an egg and sperm, I transferred genetic material from the nucleus of one of your skin cells, put it in one of Kitty's eggs, whose nucleus was removed, stimulated the cell growth, which created the embryo, and, then, inserted it into Kitty."

Lex frown deepened. The gears in his head started turning. Desmond made it sound like cloning was like a trip to the grocery store, but Lex knew that Dolly, the first cloned animal, had taken nearly three hundred attempts to make. That was nearly three hundred failed attempts to transfer genetic material into a donor egg. That was nearly three hundred eggs wasted. With human cloning, there were all sorts of ethical hurdles and costs which Lex could not see Desmond being able to hide. Lex _knew_ that modern science had not reached the point where a human could be cloned successfully. If it had, LexCorp surely would have been the first to do it. It had the means and the money.

Latching onto this train of thought, Lex's mind became clearer as he shed the emotions which had been distracting him. If there was one thing Lex could trust, it was science. Lex was willing to concede that Conner was perhaps born unnaturally. Kitty, from the recording, obviously believed she was part of an experiment. Maybe Desmond was a conman. Maybe Desmond had made some wild story about cloning to get a fat paycheck from Kitty and just gave her an in vitro fertilization instead and, now, Desmond was trying to use Conner's coma to con him.

Lex needed to catch Desmond in his lie.

"Conner was born in 1994," said Lex firmly. "Dolly was born in 1996. How could a human be cloned successfully before a sheep? The files you gave me is missing crucial information and only divulges the end result of your experiment. Where are the pre-trial runs? Where are the thorough notes on the failed attempts to create an embryo wherein the cells in the reconstructed egg failed to replicate? And how did you managed to obtain the large amount of eggs needed for your experiment? Female egg donors can only produce five to thirty five eggs when on fertility treatments. Optimistically, it took at least ten females to obtain enough eggs for your experimentation. There would be no way Kitty alone could have physically handled that without severe complications."

Desmond was awfully still throughout Lex's cross examination. He did not speak for a moment. Instead, he looked uneasily at Conner and then back at Lex. He then swiveled his chair around to look around the room at the guards. "Do you trust everyone in this room?"

"I trust them enough to kill you and not tell anyone of my involvement."

Desmond swallowed.

A few of the guards smirked.

"I did withhold some information," said Desmond slowly. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I told you that I grew up with Kitty at Nellis Air Force Base. My father was Air Force. Well, when my mother was dying of pancreatic cancer a four years ago, my father came to me and asked me a hypothetical. If there was genetic material with a healing factor that existed, would it be possible to isolate it for human use and utilize it as a cure-all."

Lex nodded slowly as he wondered where Desmond could possibly be going with this.

"You see, my father, I came to find out, had TS clearing in Area 51," said Desmond his words falling out in a rush, like he wanted to get as far away to the topic as possible. "In 1978 the Air Force obtained a small space craft—more like a space pod—which crashed near Smallville, Kansas during the annual Perseid meteor shower. There was no one inside and the ship. However, my father said that whatever creature was inside had been placed in some sort of viscous liquid which held genetic material— proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, phospholipids, and something akin to white blood cells. After studying it, I have come to believe its purpose was like amniotic fluid, most likely used as a medical aid for some form of stasis sleep providing whatever the occupant needed during space travel."

Lex stared at Desmond, his eyes wider than normal as his mind caught up to what Desmond's story was leading to. The guards too were no longer standing tall and at attention. Their bodies leaned ever so slightly in Desmond's direction as they waited to hear what he would say next.

"I couldn't save my mother," said Desmond sadly. "It's an alien substance, after all. You can't just inject that into someone. The body would reject it, cause agglutination of blood cells and organ failure. The person would die. But I asked myself, if I were to control the formation of the fetus, inject it at the right moment, there would be no rejection. Thus, I had to create an embryo via cloning. I assumed that with the healing factors it would decrease the chances of birth defects or any other abnormality that might happen due to cloning. In fact, the substance might even ensure that cell growth would occur which would mean I could effectively achieve a clone in one go." Desmond smiled. "And I did."

The room was dead silent.

"Conner's an alien?" blurted out one of the guards, who was too bewildered to even attempt at looking abashed when everyone's attention fell on him.

"If Conner was an alien," said Lex drily, mustering all the skepticism he could as he tried to get a grip on reality. Now, he really did feel like he was in the _Twilight Zone_. "I would think that in the last five years—that's five years of check-ups, booster shots, colds, flu, and chicken pox—the pediatrician might have noticed Conner was not human." Lex pointed to himself. "_I _would notice he was not human."

"That's because Connor's DNA contains mostly Human DNA," said Desmond easily. "I was a bit surprised when I did my first examination of him. The substance truly served as simply a genetic crutch with the K-DNA being recessive."

"K-DNA?" asked Lex his curiosity finally peeked.

"It's the name I created," Desmond said, his chest puffing up slightly. "My father said the spaceship had alien writing on it. One of the letters looked like a swirled K. As I was saying, the K-chromosomes are recessive creating a unique Chimera DNA."

"What's Chimera DNA?" whispered one guard to another.

Lex spun around to glare at the guards—after all, they had stopped acting professional minutes ago—when Desmond responded.

"It is when an animal has two sets of DNA instead of one. With Chimera DNA, the body does not undergo an immune reaction to having two different DNA's like it would in, say, an organ transplant gone wrong. The DNA fusion happens so early in development that a given cell cannot tell that its neighboring cell has a different set of chromosomes and they worked together as if they were all created from the same zygote and the embryo develops in a natural manner. Chimera DNA actually happens naturally in animals and humans. Rarely, but it does happen."

Desmond clearly knew his genetics. Lex found himself impressed. The gravitas of the situation had hampered the usual excitement he would have had at finding out about a scientific breakthrough. He would obviously have to hire Desmond before S.T.A.R Labs found out the genius they had on their staff. Just thinking about all the medical uses that could be gained through Desmond's research sent chills down Lex's back. He would make so much money. LexCorp would blow S.T.A.R Labs out of the water. Wayne Enterprises' medical branches would be squashed. Not that Wayne Enterprises was doing very well to be a challenge in the first place. Since Thomas Wayne had died—its tech sector was atrocious, its medical branches were behind on current research, and it had lost its hold on the shipping and manufacturing industries which had formed the basis of the company since the 17th century. Still, it would be fun to further destroy a company that had been around for over a century. It only proved LexCorp really was the company of tomorrow.

The Cheshire smile that had begun to form on Lex's face faltered when he saw Conner. He could deal with business later. He had to deal with family now. He looked at Desmond. "Why is Conner sick? Was it because he needed to take some sort of medication? Is that why Kitty was visiting you?"

Desmond shook his head. "There was no medication. I was just observing Conner as a precaution. Conner was born healthy and he has not suffered any of the maladies—a compromised immune system, tumors, or birth defects—that have been seen in cloned animals since Dolly. However, animal clones have been known to die suddenly even though they seem healthy with nothing appearing irregular in the autopsy." He made a hand motion towards Conner. "This could have been a long time coming."

Lex's eyes flashed dangerously. "That is it," he said, not liking how Desmond had gestured to Conner as if his son was a thing. "You drag me here just to tell me you cannot do anything?"

"I just want to emphasize the possible outcome," said Desmond his face solemn, but the undertone of his voice did not quite match his expression. It was subtle discrepancy. "The blood work has not revealed anything wrong."

Lex looked at Desmond, _really_ looked at him, seeing the scientist for the first time. A jolt of sudden understanding hit him. He had been so focused on curing Conner, so focused on Kitty's lie, that he had not given enough thought on Desmond. He had obtained the man's background before meeting him, but that said nothing about personality. Lex was brought back to the disturbed feeling he had earlier when Kitty has said she trusted Desmond completely.

Kitty was naive and she _had _been taken advantage of.

Lex's jaw tightened. "You do not care that my son is sick despite your so called childhood friendship with Kitty," said Lex his voice deadly calm. "_You_ must have known the moment you decided to use that alien substance that you would _never_ be able to publish your research. It was stolen. Once the government became aware of what you had done, no one would ever see you again. So there you are with this amazing substance and you ca not use it or risk experimenting with it, because you would have to keep a lot of people quite. Then Kitty comes back into your life and you realize: _here's my chance_. You could trust Kitty not to tell, even if things went wrong, even if she got sick."

Desmond tried to speak again, but Lex plowed on.

"You never _really_ expected your experiment to go well and in one try. What scientist does? You thought Kitty would miscarry. Perhaps if you were lucky she would have a late term miscarriage. Then you could take the fetus and dissect it and analyze it to your heart's content to see what exactly was going on at a molecular level. Use that for future experiments. Experiments you could do legally." Lex stopped, looked at Conner and then back at Desmond. "Now you have your chance again."

Desmond let out a pained nervous laugh. "That's not true." He stopped for a moment clearly unsure what to say next. He stuffed his hands in his lab coat.

"Well for your sake, you better hope he doesn't die."

Desmond frowned."What do you mean?"

"If he dies," said Lex slowly like he was talking to a child. "I am going to kill every person you love."

Desmond shot out of his chair. "What?"

"And then I'm going to come after you," said Lex taking a step forward. Desmond took a step back and swallowed. "But I am not going to _let_ you die."

"What . . ." Desmond's face paled. "What does _that_ mean?"

Lex gave a half shrug. "Who knows? I simply wanted to emphasize a possible outcome."

Desmond gasped as his own words were used against him. He threw his hands in the air. "But I do not know what is wrong with him!" Fear lurked behind his eyes and he searched Lex's face for some form of compassion, but found none.

Lex fed off that fear. _This_ was him. Now, he was in control. Now, he was himself.

"You already wasted enough of my time." Lex flicked his wrist and looked at his platinum Rolex. "You have an hour to come up with a diagnosis on your own before I decided you need a little _persuasion_ to work better."

"You can't do anything to me," said Desmond squaring his shoulders. "You _can't_ get rid of me! You will loose any chance of saving him."

"You do not think you are replaceable?" An amused smirk crept on Lex's lips. "LexCorp is the most sought after company by those in the scientific community. All I have to ask and they will come."

Desmond's mouth dropped.

The sound of a gun being cocked, spurred the man to rush to his computer.

* * *

YJYJYJYJ

"I know what is wrong with him!" Desmond practically yelped as he saw the digital clock inch seconds away from the deadline. He scrambled out of his chair, gave the guards a wary glance and then looked at Lex who was now sitting on the edge of Conner's bed. When he spoke, the words came out in a rush. "The K-cells have mutated to be more dominate which triggered an immune system response. The bone marrow sample helped reveal that, for some reason, the body is now recognizing some of the K-cells as foreign and attacking it. It is my educated guess, that the only reason he is alive is that the K-cells healing factor is perhaps mitigating the damage that would normally occur within a severe auto-immune response." Desmond stopped and took a deep breath. "I can't prove that though, I need better equipment."

Lex did not appear impressed. "Cell mutations happen over time and is dependent on environmental factors."

Desmond shook his head. "The mutation had to of happened suddenly. If it had happened over a period of time, he would have become ill instead of suddenly going into a coma." Desmond paused thinking rapidly of anything that would make him sound useful. Then his mind snared a thought which he could not believe he had forgotten. He walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled out a black box. He walked to Lex and opened up the box revealing a small green crystal inside. "Has he encountered anything like this?"

"No," started Lex then he stopped. "Conner was at the JSC today in one of their warehouses. Is it possible that he encountered this there?"

Desmond nodded. He probably would have nodded regardless of what Lex said. "In its original form, it looks like a regular meteorite. Some were found near the crash site. The crystals are on the inside and need to be cut to look like this. I call them K-crystals. The Air Force started doing testing on the substance and noticed it reacted negatively to their radiation." Desmond closed the box. "All evidence of the crash, which included the meteorites were supposed to be collected. However, all the research pertaining to the crash was shelved in 1979 with the rise of the Soviet War in Afghanistan and it was mostly forgotten."

Lex made a noncommittal sound and looked at Conner.

Desmond, not sure what that look meant, panicked. Was the other man not satisfied with his findings? "Um," said Desmond as he tried to think of a way the K-crystals fit in his new theory. "If he encountered an abundant enough supply of the rocks, even though the crystals were not exposed, it is possible that the K-cells, which seem to be attuned to absorbing and processing radiation, absorbed the radiation at a faster rate and then reacted negatively to them. Then the T-cells cells, recognizing the threat, tried to attach themselves to the K-cells and then, _possibly_, the K-cells, which were already damaged, had their own immune response." Desmond took a deep breath. "His body has become a battle field."

Lex quirked an eyebrow. "And how do you intend to remedy that?"

Desmond moaned as he rubbed his hands across his face. How was he supposed to cure Conner? Everything to do with the boy had been theory. Maybe if he had some of the alien substance, he could use it in some way, but it had been all used up. And would it have even worked on the boy? Due to having chimera DNA, the boy was not compatible with the alien DNA anymore. The kid was going to die, probably sooner than later. Desmond thought frantically how he could say it nicely. He was pretty sure Lex was not religious, so he couldn't exactly say Conner would be with his mother in a better place.

How could he salvage this without getting killed?

"For now—uh—Conner can be kept near a window during the day or a sun room. Anything that will bask him in the rays of the sun. It should keep him stable as I try to figure out what to do next."

Lex frowned. "Why the sun?"

"Testing showed that the fluid reacted positively to the rays of the sun."

"Really," said Lex slowly.

"Um…yes?" Desmond responded carefully not sure of Lex's mood.

Lex was quite for a moment and Desmond's heart beat faster.

"I know who your alien is," said Lex. He let out a dark chuckle, his mouth forming up into wry twist.

Desmond thought he would just die from a heart attack. The man was freaking creepy.

"Superman is able to process the radiation from the sun into energy. I believe it charges his powers and, subsequently, plays a healing role."

It took much of Desmond's will power to not ask how Lex knew that Superman could heal in this manner. He figured he had pressed all his luck. It did make sense. Superman had appeared from nowhere. If there was any space activity around the time Superman arrived, surely everyone would have been talking about it. The alien, then, must have crashed on earth when he was a baby. He must have been on earth this entire time.

Lex rubbed his chin. "If the two DNA's are at odds with each other, would not exposing Conner's body to the sun just strengthen the K-cells making their immune response worst?"

"Possibly," said Desmond once again in his most careful voice. "But it could help."

"It seems to me like the K-cells are the problem," said Lex. Clearly the man had made up his mind on how they would proceed. "What if we could weaken them to a point that they have no immune response and the body recognizes them as no longer foreign?"

Desmond nodded slowly as he caught on to what Lex was saying. "The K-crystals could possibly be used in some sort of radiation treatment. Maybe even be synthesized into a drug. It would be dangerous, though. We do not know how he would react." He locked eyes with Lex trying to make the other man understand. He did not want to suffer the consequences of a medical treatment death. Then again, it probably did not matter how Conner died, Desmond was sure he would be killed regardless. "It could kill him and it's not like we could test the treatment before hand. Conner's one of a kind."

"Yes we can," said Lex his eyes hardening. "He's not the only one who can be effected by the K-crystals."

Desmond blinked. Was the man really suggesting what he thought he was? "It's not like you can kidnap Superman and do testing on him." Desmond laughed, despite himself.

"Why wouldn't I?"

Desmond looked at Lex bewildered at his serious tone. "Because he can fly, is invulnerable, super strong, and can shoot rays out of his eyes—_Oh my God._ You are going to try to do it, aren't you?"

* * *

If you read this far, thanks for reading! Comments? Thoughts? Review.

_Whew! _Lex was so hard to write. I wanted him to have a reaction, but I could not make him sappy. I tried to write the struggle between emotions and a stoic attitude the best I could. And can I just say I love Kitty! Remember, Lex's view of her is exactly that...his view. She becomes important in the sequel when Conner goes up against Lex. She wasn't as naive and innocent as Lex liked her to be.

**UP Next: **Time jump two months. Conner's back. And what has Lex been up to? Someone doesn't approve—another member of the Luthor family shows up.


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